Mrs. Warren, a landlady, comes to 221B Baker Street with some questions about her lodger. A youngish, heavily bearded man, who spoke good English although with a foreign accent, came to her ten days ago and offered her double the rent that she had asked on the condition that he get the room on his own terms. He went out the first night that he was there, and came back after midnight when the rest of the household had gone to bed. Since then, Mrs. Warren has not seen him, nor has her husband or their servant girl. The lodger insisted on having the Daily Gazette every morning, and sometimes requested other things. All requests were printed, in single words, on a slip of paper left on a chair outside the room, where meals were also left.
